1. Today's Supreme Court judgement allowing women - of all ages - to enter the shrine of Sabarimala blew the bottom of two of my longstanding beliefs that I'd acquired from my elders and the prevalent practices. They were:-
(a) Women are to keep away from holy places, even the puja rooms of their houses, when they are
menstruating as they were 'impure'. (Looking back at it, how can they be impure because
they're only going through nature's physiological conditioning!)
(b) The pilgrimage to Sabarimala could only be performed after 41 days' penance and hence, the
shrine could not be visited women after attaining puberty and not before they underwent
menopause. (Looking back at it weren't the proponents of this argument, misogynistic?)
2. What makes me accept the verdict - without rancour - of the Supreme Court's five-judge constitutional bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra is that the change has been justified as:-
(a) The devotees of Lord Ayyappa were exclusively Hindus and do not constitute a separate
religious denomination.
(b) No scriptural evidence to exclude menstruating women.
(c) Barring women devotees between 10-50 age group was illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary.
(d) Any relationship with the creator is a transcendental one, crossing all socially created artificial
barriers and not a negotiated relationship bound by terms and conditions.
3. It would be worthwhile to go through an overview of the legend of Lord Ayyappa, at this juncture, which are:-
* Ayyappa, the presiding deity of Sabarimala hill shrine is regarded as the human incarnation
of 'Dharma Sasthavu'.
* Dharma Sasthavu is also known as 'Hariharaputhran'; son of Hari and Hara(Lord Vishnu and
Lord Siva).
* According to myths, Ayyappa was the prince of the Pandalam royal family.
* It is believed that he was adopted by the childless king, who got the baby while on a hunting
expedition in the forest.
* Ayyappa chose the life of a recluse after he is believed to have vanquished a plot by his step
mom and a section of courtiers on his life, after the birth of a baby boy to the royal couple.
* Ayyappa is believed to have kept a close friendship with a Muslim youth named 'Vaavar' and a
dargah of Vaavar is an integral part of the Sabarimala temple.
* Maalikappuram temple near the main Ayyappa shrine represents a young woman in eternal
wait for the Lord to reciprocate to her wish to marry him.
* Penace most important.
- Devotees must abstain from physical relation with spouse.
- Abstention from intoxicating drinks, smoking and 'tamasic' food.
- Cooking one's own food.
- Maintaining hygiene, including bathing, twice a day, before prayers.
- One meal a day.
* The Eternal wait.
- Malikapurathamma is the goddess who is worshipped in a subsidiary shrine at Sabarimala.
- Devotees visit the Malikapurathamma temple after having the darshan of Ayyappa.
- Mahishi, who was the daughter of sage Galvan, was cursed by a disciple of Galvan, turning
her into a buffalo-headed demon.
- The demon was killed by Ayyappa, ending the curse and turning her into a beautiful woman.
- The woman wanted to marry Ayyappa.
- But Ayyappa told her that he was a Brahmachari. He told that he would marry her when no
'Kanni Ayyappan'(A pilgrim who visits the shrine for the first time) would come to Sabarimala.
- However, Kanni Ayyappas visit the shrine every year. Her temple, in time, came to be known
as the Malikapurathamma temple.
- The legend goes further saying that in honour of Malikapurathamma, Lord Ayyappa does not
receive any menstruating women.
4. The Remedial Measures (Short term and Long term).
Now that women can also visit the shrine, the existing arrangements have to be reviewed and altered and my suggestions are to institute the following, with immediate effect:-
(a) The temple should be kept open 24x7, 365 days of the year instead of the present practice of
opening the shrine for the first few days of the beginning of every month on the Malayalam
calendar and the two month activity covering the mid-Nov to mid-Jan period. This will have
a uniform crowd all through the year with maybe, a spike during the Makaravilakku period
(Mid-Nov to mid-Jan).
(b) Segregation and crowd control by a mix of adequate numbers of policemen and policewomen.
(c) Installation of rope ways for easy ingress and egress.
(d) Exemplary punishment to be meted out to those who misbehave/show errant behaviour.
Tailpiece.
With the Supreme Court's striking down of the 158-year-old law making adultery a crime yesterday, I reckon that the institution of marriage is gonna get weak. But relationships - the consenting individuals do not look at the legality and usually, care a damn despite knowing the fact that if caught, the situation results in unpleasantness - blossom due to circumstances beyond control. I consider it as a very practical judgement.
(a) Women are to keep away from holy places, even the puja rooms of their houses, when they are
menstruating as they were 'impure'. (Looking back at it, how can they be impure because
they're only going through nature's physiological conditioning!)
(b) The pilgrimage to Sabarimala could only be performed after 41 days' penance and hence, the
shrine could not be visited women after attaining puberty and not before they underwent
menopause. (Looking back at it weren't the proponents of this argument, misogynistic?)
2. What makes me accept the verdict - without rancour - of the Supreme Court's five-judge constitutional bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra is that the change has been justified as:-
(a) The devotees of Lord Ayyappa were exclusively Hindus and do not constitute a separate
religious denomination.
(b) No scriptural evidence to exclude menstruating women.
(c) Barring women devotees between 10-50 age group was illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary.
(d) Any relationship with the creator is a transcendental one, crossing all socially created artificial
barriers and not a negotiated relationship bound by terms and conditions.
3. It would be worthwhile to go through an overview of the legend of Lord Ayyappa, at this juncture, which are:-
* Ayyappa, the presiding deity of Sabarimala hill shrine is regarded as the human incarnation
of 'Dharma Sasthavu'.
* Dharma Sasthavu is also known as 'Hariharaputhran'; son of Hari and Hara(Lord Vishnu and
Lord Siva).
* According to myths, Ayyappa was the prince of the Pandalam royal family.
* It is believed that he was adopted by the childless king, who got the baby while on a hunting
expedition in the forest.
* Ayyappa chose the life of a recluse after he is believed to have vanquished a plot by his step
mom and a section of courtiers on his life, after the birth of a baby boy to the royal couple.
* Ayyappa is believed to have kept a close friendship with a Muslim youth named 'Vaavar' and a
dargah of Vaavar is an integral part of the Sabarimala temple.
* Maalikappuram temple near the main Ayyappa shrine represents a young woman in eternal
wait for the Lord to reciprocate to her wish to marry him.
* Penace most important.
- Devotees must abstain from physical relation with spouse.
- Abstention from intoxicating drinks, smoking and 'tamasic' food.
- Cooking one's own food.
- Maintaining hygiene, including bathing, twice a day, before prayers.
- One meal a day.
* The Eternal wait.
- Malikapurathamma is the goddess who is worshipped in a subsidiary shrine at Sabarimala.
- Devotees visit the Malikapurathamma temple after having the darshan of Ayyappa.
- Mahishi, who was the daughter of sage Galvan, was cursed by a disciple of Galvan, turning
her into a buffalo-headed demon.
- The demon was killed by Ayyappa, ending the curse and turning her into a beautiful woman.
- The woman wanted to marry Ayyappa.
- But Ayyappa told her that he was a Brahmachari. He told that he would marry her when no
'Kanni Ayyappan'(A pilgrim who visits the shrine for the first time) would come to Sabarimala.
- However, Kanni Ayyappas visit the shrine every year. Her temple, in time, came to be known
as the Malikapurathamma temple.
- The legend goes further saying that in honour of Malikapurathamma, Lord Ayyappa does not
receive any menstruating women.
4. The Remedial Measures (Short term and Long term).
Now that women can also visit the shrine, the existing arrangements have to be reviewed and altered and my suggestions are to institute the following, with immediate effect:-
(a) The temple should be kept open 24x7, 365 days of the year instead of the present practice of
opening the shrine for the first few days of the beginning of every month on the Malayalam
calendar and the two month activity covering the mid-Nov to mid-Jan period. This will have
a uniform crowd all through the year with maybe, a spike during the Makaravilakku period
(Mid-Nov to mid-Jan).
(b) Segregation and crowd control by a mix of adequate numbers of policemen and policewomen.
(c) Installation of rope ways for easy ingress and egress.
(d) Exemplary punishment to be meted out to those who misbehave/show errant behaviour.
Tailpiece.
With the Supreme Court's striking down of the 158-year-old law making adultery a crime yesterday, I reckon that the institution of marriage is gonna get weak. But relationships - the consenting individuals do not look at the legality and usually, care a damn despite knowing the fact that if caught, the situation results in unpleasantness - blossom due to circumstances beyond control. I consider it as a very practical judgement.
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